VR Gaming in 2019: Headsets Evolve, PS4 Power and More Predictions

Virtual reality (VR) is like The Little Engine That Could. It keeps chugging along and pushing, despite adoption obstacles and uphill-like momentum. But every year, VR pushes closer to becoming mainstream tech. And if you know the story of The Little Engine That Could, you know that he eventually succeeds. Will 2019 be the year VR finally reaches the top of the gaming mountain, becoming a broadly accepted, realistic and coveted platform?

Let’s gaze into our crystal ball for some predictions about the reality of VR in 2019.

No, VR won’t die. The market will grow, but consumer growth will be slow.

Analysts generally agree that the VR market will continue growing throughout 2019. But while business use expands rapidly, consumer VR will continue growing slowly, thanks to barriers-to-entry, like price, space requirements and many headsets requiring a well-specced gaming PC.

Analysts peg the market as growing at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 50 percent, give or take, depending on whom you ask. A September 2018 report notes that the global VR market represented $4.5 billion in 2017. Signs also point to growth for VR gaming specifically. Grand View Research says the global VR gaming market will surpass $45 billion by 2025. And in 2017, gaming, as well as media and entertainment represented over 30 percent of VR revenue, according to P&S Market Research.

So even though we’re expecting slow consumer growth, we expect that as VR grows overall, so too will VR gaming-related sales, primarily from VR headsets. VR headset prices are continuously dropping—partially due to component prices falling—and, therefore, accessibility is growing.

Standalone headsets will come into their own in 2019. We’ll all have our eyes on Oculus Quest in 2019, because It could potentially tear down many of those VR barriers. At $400, the standalone headset can offer a similar experience to the Oculus Rift without requiring IR sensors or connection to a gaming PC or smartphone.

While its mobile CPU may not be as powerful as a modern Intel or AMD processor, its wireless functionality, 6-degrees of freedom (6-DOF, for 360-degree movement) and bundled controllers are also important steps in making VR gaming more appealing.

VR headsets will get more powerful.

Outside of Oculus Quest, there are many other reasons to watch HMDs in 2019, as fields of view (FOVs), displays, eye tracking and wireless capabilities continue to advance.

The rumored Valve headset is expected to have an impressive 135-degree FOV. And by 2019, Pimax should be done shipping out its 8K, with a dual-resolution of 3840x2160 and 200-degree FOV, and 5K Plus, with dual-resolution of 2560x1440 and 200-degree FOV, headsets. Consider that the HTC Vive Pro has dual 1440x1600 resolution and a 110-degree FOV.

Speaking of eye-tracking, the tech is also on track to improve in 2019, thanks to components vendor developments—although it’ll probably take longer to reach consumers. Take Synaptics, which in August released a new display driver claiming to be the first dual-display 2K resolution combined with foveal transport support, which keeps images in the direct line of sight.

Visual Camp tech, meanwhile, promises the power to navigate and make menu selections with the eyes and foveated rendering for better performance. The company claims to have developed a VR game that offers “gaze and object targeting.”

Finally, Oculus Quest isn’t the only one cutting the cord. HTC brought wireless experiences in 2018 with the HTC Vive wireless adapter. And that’s a feature too helpful for other vendors to ignore.

VR accessories will keep flooding in.

In 2018, many VR accessories emerged touting their ability to make VR more immersive. There’s Mudra Inspire, a wristband-turned-VR controller, the HoloSuit, a full-body VR suit, to start. Next year, expect to see even more, whether it’s VR shoes, VR treadmills, VR backpacks or newfound ways to virtualize hands beyond joystick controllers.

Valve’s next Knuckles controllers will likely debut in 2019—our best guess is after GDC (Game Developer Conference) in March. Afterwards, you’ll probably hear of development of games that use the unique inputs Knuckles bring to the table.

As far as Xbox VR goes, Microsoft scrapped its original plans. But some people still have their fingers crossed. Evidence, as cited by UploadVR, includes Microsoft buying inXile Entertainment, developer of VR game The Mage’s Tale. And at E3 2018, Microsoft announced its acquisition of Ninja Theory, maker of VR games Dexed and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice VR Edition. Microsoft is likely playing VR safe for now, so we’re not holding our breath for Xbox VR in 2019.

According to P&S Market Research, smartphones are contributing to a “stable platform” for VR. Mobile VR circumnavigates some roadblocks by letting users tie the experience to something they’re more likely to have than a powerful gaming rig—a smartphone. AMD this month announced AMD Radeon ReLive for VR, which lets you stream VR games to mobile VR headsets. While the offering has some limitations, as noted in our hands-on, it does point to vendor interest in smartphone-based VR.

More VR games...and maybe an update on those Valve VR titles.

All that being said, if you’ve already bought into VR, there’s perhaps nothing more exciting (or guaranteed) than new games set in 2019. Lone Echo 2 for Oculus Rift, Population: One for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality and Stormland for Oculus Rift are some of the most anticipated VR games for 2019.

We’re also still waiting for those three Valve VR games CEO Gabe Newell promised back in 2017. Valve released its first game in five years, Artifact, in November. So we’re hopeful 2019 will bring news of Valve’s pending VR games, especially if the Knuckles controllers arrive. If Valve doesn’t actually release the VR titles next year, we’d at least take an update (please!).

Scharon Harding is Senior Editor at Tom's Hardware. She has a special affinity for monitors, laptops and desktops and virtual reality. Previously, Scharon covered business technology, including hardware, software, cyber security, cloud and other IT happenings, at Channelnomics, with bylines at CRN UK.

AMD this month announced AMD Radeon ReLive for VR, which lets you stream VR games to mobile VR headsets. While the offering has some limitations, as noted in our hands-on, it does point to vendor interest in smartphone-based VR.

The only way I can really make sense of that feature is to view it as a tech demo for wireless HMD support. Perhaps AMD is trying to convince partners to work with them on a new standard for wireless HMD connectivity.

With 1080tis struggling to get 60fps@4k, it's going to be a very long time before any GPU can deliver 2x that resolution at 120fps. They're making VR hardware no GPU can run.

Nvidia's DLSS can probably deliver the goods. Of course, it works the same way as current 4k HMDs - render to a lower resolution and scale to the display's native res.

And if you had really good eye tracking, then ray tracing could enable very efficient foveated rendering. I don't know if the gains in sample reduction would be enough to offset the increased overhead. I'm sure people are looking into it.

In the VR space, Decentraland (https://decentraland.org/) just completed their second, and final, land auction. They also have an alpha SDK available. I've been on their Discord channel for a few weeks now, and it looks like there are groups that have big plans for the platform. Graphics will be low poly count initially (think Minecraft), but this should increase over time.

In terms of gaming specific content CryptoCarz, and CryptoBeasties were both announced in late September.

In the VR space, Decentraland (https://decentraland.org/) just completed their second, and final, land auction. They also have an alpha SDK available. I've been on their Discord channel for a few weeks now, and it looks like there are groups that have big plans for the platform.

I like the idea that it's eventually aspiring to be independent of a central hosting provider. That always bugged me about Second Life - felt a bit like AoL for the VR age. However, I want to see those plans fleshed out, and to understand how moderation can work when you no longer have a central authority.

I'm also skeptical that anything blockchain-based can scale, but then I don't actually know much about how they're using it.

With 1080tis struggling to get 60fps@4k, it's going to be a very long time before any GPU can deliver 2x that resolution at 120fps. They're making VR hardware no GPU can run.

Nvidia's DLSS can probably deliver the goods. Of course, it works the same way as current 4k HMDs - render to a lower resolution and scale to the display's native res.

And if you had really good eye tracking, then ray tracing could enable very efficient foveated rendering. I don't know if the gains in sample reduction would be enough to offset the increased overhead. I'm sure people are looking into it.

With game development, sometimes you've just got to be creative with the (hardware) resources available; quite literally.

When pushing the envelope in what modern GPUs can do, the immediate focus is in visual realism. I get that. But, from an artistic and creative point of view, you can pull off some incredible gaming with retro flat-shaded polygon action. That would allow for maximum frame-rate, responsiveness, and AA high resolutions.

Traditional rendering techniques won't scale to the VR future. Foveated rendering is an absolute must to get into the 4k, 5k and 8k ranges especially if we want to maintain 90+ FPS for motion sickness prevention. If we are serious about mobile VR then we need to focus on how to decrease the work it takes to render a convincing VR image. A combination of foveated rendering, cheap interpolation (ala Rift), increased GPU speed, next gen upscaling like PS4's and DLSS plus increased adoption of low level APIs like Vulkan allowing for new more efficient rendering techniques... all will play a part.

especially if we want to maintain 90+ FPS for motion sickness prevention.

Motion sickness is caused by discrepancies between actions and expected feedback. You'll still get motion sickness at 120fps if there is a 60ms delay between what you are doing and what you are seeing, especially if there also are discrepancies between expected feedback and actual feedback on top of it.

Same old "this is the year!" guff from absurdly over-optimistic enthusiasts. Every year we get 'this is the year...'

Quest will NOT "tear down many of those VR barriers". In fact it will not tear down any barrier - GO was supposed to do that. And the fact that Quest will have the same fresnel pebbles as G0 - to be sure, they are identical - means that Zuckerberg has turned the Oculus thoroughbred into a lazy carthorse with mid-range standalones, and only a few VR enthusiasts who already have Go will swap it for Quest.

I'm excited by only one thing: XTAL. VRgineers have dared to defy the received wisdom, parroted by developers and enthusiasts alike, that fresnels are the best lenses. It shatters the myth that 'next gen' fresnels, proudly boasted by Oculus (and stuffed into both Go and Quest), is what VR needs. I really hope VRgineers can produce a consumer version of XTAL.